Disney buy Lucas Film – Star Wars 7, 8 & 9 incoming!

Disney have announced the takeover of Lucas Film, buying out George Lucas for £2.5bn ($4.05bn). Lucas stated of the takeover “It’s now time for me to pass Star Wars on to a new generation of film-makers.”

The other news to come out of Disney, was the companies plans for their newly acquired brand. Star Wars Episode 7 is slated for a 2015 release, with Episodes 8 and 9 to follow. Disney also plan to effectively serialise the franchise with a new movie to come out every two or three years. Disney believes that there is “substantial pent-up demand” for new Star Wars films.

This announcement is sure to draw the ire of Star Wars fanatics, who would rather see a return to quality rather than quantity. However, many fans already proclaim that Lucas has damaged the Star Wars brand irreparably, with his constant flip flopping over trivial aspects of the brand, changing the story when it suits and in general distancing himself from the original trilogy. Perhaps it is time, as Lucas states, to pass on the brand to new faces, with new ideas and the chance to move Star Wars in a different direction.

Star Wars certainly has the potential for greatness, with Bioware’s Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR) being an excellent use of the ip, and the upcoming Star Wars 1313 looking promising. However, many will be sceptical over whether Disney is the right company to move the sci-fi genre to exciting new heights.